Still Hiking A New Trail Of The Vermilon River. A Post to MWT and WBW.

 We're still hiking the new trail and taking a look at some tundra, taiga or bog, whatever you want to call it. Amila Kanchann remarked in the comments section that it was like being on a virtual hike. I've always thought of the blog as a glimpse of the beauty contained in a small area of Canada. The "virtual hike" remark takes it even further, so thanks Amila, from Boom and I. CLICK ANY PHOTO TO VIEW THE SLIDE SHOW.

 There are of course many regions in Canada that contain forests similar to this one or even different types, but all equally beautiful. Canadians are blessed beyond others by being able to enjoy such bounty. But we have to guard it carefully from despoilers and exploiters, who would sell us their destruction under the guise of a questionable progress.

 As I said in the previous post, the hike starts early, and starts along the south wetland of the east track area. There are two trails, one almost a road, and the other a trail that skirts the wetland. We'll skirt the wetland. The lighting is bad on this trail, as its a black spruce area, with a thick canopy. I used for the wildlife photos the 70-300mm, as there is not enough light for the 150-500mm lens, and for wildlife you need to shoot fast.

 The wetland at the far end turns into tundra or bog which is usual for a Boreal forest. The Vermilon Forest is a transition forest between the Boreal and the St. Lawrence/Great Lakes forest to our south. We have hardwood trees but they are birch, and only some maple or oak, and then fairly stunted. Our trees are mainly coniferous trees.

 You can see the light brightening in this photo.

 You can see the density of the trees as the sun rises. You have to be careful as the trails are not maintained. Black spruce has a small root ball, and the aspen and birch die in place standing. So there are standing rotten trees, and in a wind they'll come down on you. You though I was going to say bears, but while we're looking for them I haven't seen any this year.

 This is what tundra looks like.

And this is why we're not going in there as its wet, and you'll sink.

This Black-capped Chickadee series shows this little fellow rooting in a woodpecker hole and in the final shot, coming up with sawdust. This is a standing birch,as rotten as can be.  I mentioned above you have to watch for falling trees.

 Now he's got the sawdust.

Black-capped Chickadee.

Mourning Dove.

Tree Swallow

 The Dark-eyed Juncos have moved north now.

Dark-eyed Junco.

White-throat Sparrow.

 The colours on the birds are especially vivid at this time of year. Look at that yellow. It just jumps off the page.

White-throated Sparrow.

This is a  Swainson's Thrush. We have the Hermit Thrush and the Veery as well.

 There are lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers around.

 I was lucky to catch him in flight. You can see the yellow in his tail area.

Equally so, there are a lot of Purple Finches around.

 Although not as colourful, the female purple finch has incredible markings.

 In a previous post I said this was a Painted Lady, or an American Lady. Wrong on both counts as Jenn Jilks pointed out. Its a Red Admiral. Apparently 10,000 of these butterflies migrated to Ontario during the cold snap. They must have survived as NWO Birds is reporting Red Admiral sightings, and they're north of me.

This guy is still lying down on the job. A Post to MWT and WBW. I don't put the URL's in anymore as they don't set up the link system automatically. Is this Blogger again?

Red Squirrel.